Lesley Thiel

The Truth of Thorns

Lesley Thiel
18" x 18" / 45.7 x 45.7cm
Oil on Panel

“Addie is wearing an Elizabethan collar decorated with feathers and cogs, to show that she is the queen of a natural and technological world, and can bring them together. She stands in a thicket of brambles, and that’s where the title comes from. Brambles probably provided us with our earliest readily available source of food, but collecting them comes at a price, because they are protected by sharp, hooked thorns. Society has asked girls to be roses without thorns, and the brambles represent the acknowledgement that girls need to have the power to speak their truth, instead of hiding their thoughts for fear of being judged prickly.”